Describe your school's strengths and needs based on a school improvement document, such as the school's SALT visit report, its SALT survey data, or its school improvement plan.
The SALT survey for BRMS noted that the schools strong points include:
The conscientious efforts of teachers to provide a high quality education
The pride teachers take in their work and their eagerness to share their work with others
Teachers’ collaboration within their own individual teams
The good rapport teachers have with their students
Teachers’ genuine concern for the academic and social development of their students
I have noticed all of these characteristics first hand. Most notably teachers' collaboration with teams and teachers' eagerness to share their work. I have observed team meetings in 3 schools and the teachers at BR seam to be the most respectful, cooperative, and goal oriented of all. This strong report extends beyond mere team meetings and branches out across the entire faculty. Teachers are constantly sharing ideas with one another, helping with both in and out of school problems, and working collaboratively to give each student all of the necessary resources for success.
The survey recommended that teachers improve in the following areas:
Expand the current practice of providing detailed diagnostic written comments that students are able to use
to revise and improve their work school wide.
Examine and refine the current use of rubrics and checklists to ensure the appropriate use of each
assessment tool.
Provide “job-embedded” professional development that focuses on differentiated instruction, teaming
practices, establishing routines in the classroom that support cooperative learning, teaching reading in all
subject areas within a balanced literacy framework, creating analytical rubrics, and standards-based
instructional practices. When appropriate, capitalize on the talents that exist in this building for in-class
modeling and sharing.
I do not have much of a basis for comparison in this respect as these recommendations date back to 2006, but I can say that I have noticed that these areas are addressed in a number of ways. The first recommendation seams to focus on feed-back. My CT goes above and beyond providing students with lots of feedback. Students will get information not only on the science concepts of an assignment, but papers are ALWAYS marked for spelling, grammar and use of English in general. This gets students to think about their writing to a deeper level than in most science class rooms.
The second recommendation looks at the use of rubrics. Students in this science class have had a number of projects all with a through and easy to read rubric. Students are given the rubric in advance so they know exactly how their work will be grade.
Finally, as far as giving students personal development opportunities, students in this class have recently been given a project where they were asked to apply for a job as an organelle. Students had to think about their own skills and abilities and compare them to the functions of the cell parts to find a job they would be suited for. They had to fill out an application listing their skill, talents, etc. as well as obtain 2 recommendation letters from their pears. So students got experience in finding how their abilities could be suited for a job, filling out job applications, as well as writing recommendation letters.
Because I cannot compare BR today to BR 3 years ago it is hard to say if progress has been made, but I can see clear evidence that BR has put an effort into improving in the areas that the survey suggested.
Describe your school's strengths and needs based on a school improvement document, such as the school's SALT visit report, its SALT survey data, or its school improvement plan.
The SALT survey for BRMS noted that the schools strong points include:
The conscientious efforts of teachers to provide a high quality education
The pride teachers take in their work and their eagerness to share their work with others
Teachers’ collaboration within their own individual teams
The good rapport teachers have with their students
Teachers’ genuine concern for the academic and social development of their students
I have noticed all of these characteristics first hand. Most notably teachers' collaboration with teams and teachers' eagerness to share their work. I have observed team meetings in 3 schools and the teachers at BR seam to be the most respectful, cooperative, and goal oriented of all. This strong report extends beyond mere team meetings and branches out across the entire faculty. Teachers are constantly sharing ideas with one another, helping with both in and out of school problems, and working collaboratively to give each student all of the necessary resources for success.
The survey recommended that teachers improve in the following areas:
Expand the current practice of providing detailed diagnostic written comments that students are able to use
to revise and improve their work school wide.
Examine and refine the current use of rubrics and checklists to ensure the appropriate use of each
assessment tool.
Provide “job-embedded” professional development that focuses on differentiated instruction, teaming
practices, establishing routines in the classroom that support cooperative learning, teaching reading in all
subject areas within a balanced literacy framework, creating analytical rubrics, and standards-based
instructional practices. When appropriate, capitalize on the talents that exist in this building for in-class
modeling and sharing.
I do not have much of a basis for comparison in this respect as these recommendations date back to 2006, but I can say that I have noticed that these areas are addressed in a number of ways. The first recommendation seams to focus on feed-back. My CT goes above and beyond providing students with lots of feedback. Students will get information not only on the science concepts of an assignment, but papers are ALWAYS marked for spelling, grammar and use of English in general. This gets students to think about their writing to a deeper level than in most science class rooms.
The second recommendation looks at the use of rubrics. Students in this science class have had a number of projects all with a through and easy to read rubric. Students are given the rubric in advance so they know exactly how their work will be grade.
Finally, as far as giving students personal development opportunities, students in this class have recently been given a project where they were asked to apply for a job as an organelle. Students had to think about their own skills and abilities and compare them to the functions of the cell parts to find a job they would be suited for. They had to fill out an application listing their skill, talents, etc. as well as obtain 2 recommendation letters from their pears. So students got experience in finding how their abilities could be suited for a job, filling out job applications, as well as writing recommendation letters.
Because I cannot compare BR today to BR 3 years ago it is hard to say if progress has been made, but I can see clear evidence that BR has put an effort into improving in the areas that the survey suggested.